Debut EP by Philadelphia alternative rockers Cold Court channels childhood memories into an expansive soundscape

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Philadelphia-based alternative rockers Cold Court released their debut EP on Friday, acting as an introduction to the boundless soundscapes that the emerging band is capable of.

The EP’s title, “\(^_^) /,” is a string of characters depicting an emoji with its hands raised that band members refer to as “Hands Up.”

All seven tracks were written by sibling duo Jojo Lavina-Maldonado and Mini Serrano, with the original goal of keeping everything outside of the computer. They recorded in various locations, including their old apartment in Philadelphia and upstate New York.

Lavina-Maldonado said while the initial recordings sounded cool, they weren’t quite right.

“We kind of panicked and started clipping everything, started turning everything up,” he said. “It was just kind of like our instinct.”

Originally hailing from New Jersey, the siblings have been making music together since they were children. The two would tag along with their father to recording studios where he worked on hip-hop tracks.

While those early memories were foundational to their first collaborative efforts, the siblings said they somewhat grew apart as they got older. Once Serrano found the guitar, their bond was stronger than ever.

“My first year [in high school] was when I found rock music,” Serrano said. “Once I found My Chemical Romance, I was like, ‘I want to learn guitar.’”

“As soon as Mini came to me about playing guitar and recording stuff, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is like the coolest thing ever,’” Lavina-Maldonado said.

The band officially formed in 2021, when Lavina-Maldonado was a senior in high school and Serrano was a freshman. The two would record songs using computer programs like FL Studio, which they would carry into their songwriting process.

“We were very ambitious with the way that we started this and the way that we approached it,” Serrano said. “We kind of wanted to make the best music ever. Every idea to us had to be so cutting-edge.”

The songs on “Hands Up” explore a range of emotions, with none of the lyrics being written down beforehand. Possibly inspired by their childhood roots, the vocals were created through freestyling over individual sections of beats played on a loop.

“There’s nothing really like chill, I guess, about a lot of the way that I feel emotions, especially when I’m singing,” Serrano said. “Each song has like a character and something tragic is happening to them in every song.”

Keyboardist Charlie Westlake, bassist Theo Shuttlesworth and drummers Jett Mann and Josh Lopez joined the project for the recordings.

While drum performances were kept “lively and in the room,” Lavina-Maldonado said that every other element of a track would go through extensive revisions and rewrites as the project progressed.

The opening track, “Nina,” starts with a lively rock aesthetic for over a minute before electronic elements emerge and weave into the song’s fabric.

Other tracks, like “Burn” and “Cola,” showcase the group’s ability to move between nightclub energy and basement-show intensity. Lavina-Maldonado described the end product as “a good amount of throwing things at the wall.”

“We were chasing this kind of sound that brought us back to our childhood,” Lavina-Maldonado said. “I think we’re like a lot of these songs, we’re supposed to just channel our very small selves and make them seem really big in that way.”

Serrano said the goal was to create an EP that introduced listeners to her and her brother as producers and songwriters.

“It feels like a weight is being lifted,” Serrano said. “This music has been a part of us for so, so long. It feels great to finally put it out and I just want, finally, the world to hear it.”

“Hands Up” is available now on streaming platforms.